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As usual AACC’s signature event will present emerging science, practices and technologies across the spectrum of clinical laboratory medicine. A new twist this year will be two quiz shows and a mock court session. These special sessions will offer fun and unique opportunities to earn continuing education credits at the conference.

Participants will hear the arguments of and evidence from attorneys and an expert witness who worked on recent trials. One of the cases involves a murder trial in which the expert witness will be asked to testify about the role of psychoactive drugs in the victim’s death. The second case is a medical malpractice lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleges that severe brain injury was caused by improper specimen collection.

Invited expert witnesses include: Louisville-based attorneys David Mejia, Esq., JD, of Mejia Law Office, and Robert Shelton, Esq., JD, of Shelton Law Group, as well as Jennifer Bainbridge, Esq., JD, deputy district attorney of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Quiz shows will make two appearances at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting. On Aug. 1, Paul Jannetto, PhD, DABCC, of the Mayo Clinic, will moderate a “Laboratory Medicine Family Feud” afternoon symposium, which pits AACC leadership against members of the Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians. The teams will square off on various laboratory medicine topics such as oncology and cardiovascular biomarkers, molecular testing, point-of-care testing, therapeutic drug management/toxicology, and overutilized or outdated tests.

“Infectious Disease Quiz Show” on Aug. 2 will engage the audience on topics addressing Zika virus, mass spectrometry, antimicrobial resistance, and other infectious disease issues and diagnostic solutions. Helming this interactive session will be Carey-Ann Burnham, PhD and Melanie Yarbrough, PhD, both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Another must-see event will be the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE special session on July 31. Two participants in this $10 million global competition to develop devices capable of diagnosing at least 13 health conditions and continuously monitoring five vital signs, all with a consumer-friendly interface and weighing no more than 5 pounds will present their innovations. Eugene Chan, MD, the DNA Medicine Institute’s CEO and head scientist, and Chung-Kang Peng, PhD, co-director of the Rey Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics in Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will describe the technologies they’ve developed to advance reliable health diagnoses.

Opening the Annual Scientific Meeting on July 30 will be Jennifer Doudna, PhD, professor of chemistry and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, who will discuss the landmark CRISPR gene editing technology she had a lead role in developing, and how it is advancing the field of biology.

Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, DSc, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Oncofertility Consortium at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, on July 31 will describe all of the disciplines that make up the new field of oncofertility, an effort to preserve young cancer patients’ abilities to have children.